Dynamic crossover length in soft-glassy materials

TL;DR

This study uses mesoscale simulations to investigate how the correlation length of the stress field in soft-glassy materials varies with load frequency, revealing two distinct scaling regimes and a crossover linked to material rheology.

Contribution

It identifies and characterizes the crossover length scale in soft-glassy materials, connecting microscopic excitations to macroscopic rheological behavior.

Findings

Two clear scaling regimes with exponents -1/2 and -1

A sharp crossover length scale related to density excitations

Connection between collective dynamics and yield stress emergence

Abstract

Based upon mesoscale simulations of binary mixtures with very low surface tension and positive disjoining pressure (frustration), we measure the correlation length of the stress field within the flowing mixture, as a function of the frequency of the applied load. Two scaling regimes are clearly identified, with a sharp crossover between the liquid and solid regions, with exponent -1/2 and -1, respectively. The crossover correlation length is shown to be closely connected to the typical scale of the coherent excitations of the density field, whose collective dynamics is shown to be responsible for non-trivial rheological effects including the emergence of yield stress.